Hello! My name is Sam Wheeler, and I have been
teaching for 12 years now in North Carolina. I primarily teach
Physics and AP Physics, but often times pick up another course or
two to fill out my schedule. I was at Southeast Raleigh High
School, where I was also teaching Physics and AP Physics, and I was
also serving the department as department chair, but decided to take
a leave of absence this year to work with my wife at The Franklin
Academy, a charter school in Wake Forest, NC.

The past several years have been very exciting to say
the least. Recently
I was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science
Teaching, and I am making a point to take advantage of all the opportunities
that follow as a result of that great honor. In 2002, I was
awarded a three year NSF funded research fellowship, through the
Kenan Institute, to develop a curriculum and a permanent exhibit
at the NC Natural Science Museum on the impact of Carbon Dioxide
emissions on Global Climate Change. That led to several opportunities
with the museum. In summer of 2002, I went to Belize to study
the biodiversity and the role of the coral reef and the rain forest
in the carbon cycle. In 2003, I was able to take part in a
three week cultural experience through the Fulbright program to Japan,
which I highly recommend to anyone. However in 2004 I was excited
to be a finalist in the Educator Astronaut program, which is an honor
to say the least even though I didn’t make it through the final
pick! I have been very fortunate to have taken part in several
other science expeditions over the past few years including trips
to Ecuador, Alberta, and recently Yellowstone National Park. In
each of these opportunities my personal goal has been to develop
curricula that teach physics concepts through biological and environmental
examples. Also, one of the most interesting things that I have
been able to do was to co-host and help produce a local live, call-in,
Math & Science television show through the local public access
station. On the show my co-host and I answered questions from
students, did science demos, and I even brought my own students on
to help out. Ultimately, it is as much fun to bring back the
stories and lessons to share with my students as it has been to take
part in these experiences. I get excited by getting them excited.

Personally, I’ve been married nearly four years now to a wonderful
woman. We don’t have any kids yet, but we have two spoiled
cats. (One is my step-cat, the other we both adopted.) We
both love to travel and took a group of students to Europe last summer
for ten days and are organizing a trip to Italy and Greece this summer!